The (dis)United Kingdom: A few things off my chest

Firstly, this post is very little to do with Brexit but many of the themes may have contributed to the current state of political and media debate about the UK’s departure from the EU.

I don’t consider this to be that well written — it’s basically a rant when I had promised myself I’d sit down and watch yesterday’s Match of Day, with a cup of coffee after a full on week volunteering for Extinction Rebellion. I need a break but I must write this because “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”

Network (1976) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/

So here goes — ten things about the ‘United’ Kingdom’s politics and media that I hate — how many do you agree with? If any are unfamiliar to you, I’ve added some references to the bottom:

1. A country where we believe in ‘international law’ except when it finds us guilty (then we ignore it) i.e. Chagos Islands;
2. A country that believes in the freedom of journalists except when to do so might upset our friends across the Atlantic i.e. Julian Assange;
3. A country that provides a platform to public figures who lied to us and deceived us in the past (with (hundreds of) thousands of lives lost) so they can complain about how we’ve been lied to and deceived by their successors i.e. Blair, Campbell, Iraq and Brexit;
4. A country whose intellectuals, politicians and mainstream media slander a lifelong anti-racist as anti-Semitic and terrorist sympathiser, for political motives (whatever the faults of Corbyn he’s not this);
5. A country that can’t bring itself to welcome a UN report (we abstained last week) which found the deliberate shooting of protestors, children, medics targeted by the heavily armed forces of a strategic ally i.e. Israel and Palestine/Gaza;
6. A country where the impartiality of the BBC (or other ‘quality’ mainstream media) isn’t considered a joke by most of its citizens (not on any subject which might upset its politicians anyway);
7. A country whose politicians/media demonise one country for (allegedly) interfering in another country’s politics but stay silent about the open interference of another i.e. Russia vs Israel;
8. A country that, consistent with most developed countries around the world, is failing to educate its citizens on the climate emergency and take adequate steps to protect them — just read Deep Adaptation by Jem Bendell;
9. A country where UK jobs making weapons of death and destruction are more important than speaking out against our allies bombing one of the poorest countries on earth i.e. Yemen (but this is only the latest example);
10. A country which probably won’t exist in a decade or two — Northern Ireland becomes part of a united Ireland and Scotland gains its independence. Not sure yet which one I’ll leave England to go live in yet!

I’m sorry but I just had to get this off my chest — I’m going to watch Match of the Day now!

References (not particularly well referenced but a guide to the point I’m making):

1 — UK vs Mauritius ref: Chagos Islands https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/22/un-vote-backing-chagos-islands-a-blow-for-uk

2 — Julian Assange, journalist, arbitrarily detained in London says the UN https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/04/julian-assange-wikileaks-arrest-friday-un-investigation and mocked and lied about by The Guardian (who published much of what Wikileaks obtained from Manning).

3 — Blair / Campbell re: Invasion of Iraq and recent statements on Brexit/People’s Vote etc. Do I really need to provide references on this?

4 — See https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2019-02-21/anti-semitism-divide-britain-labour-party/ for antisemitism critique and this article by Peter Oborne https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/tom-bower-book-dangerous-hero-jeremy-corbyn-labour-leader-truth for more general fake news about Corbyn which is not challenged by mainstream media (Peter excepted).

5 — UK abstains (rather than welcome) this UN report on the shooting of unarmed protestors in Gaza https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=24226&LangID=E

6 — “We Don’t Do Propaganda” Medialens http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/898-the-destruction-of-freedom-chelsea-manning-julian-assange-and-the-corporate-media.html

7 — Hypocritical treatment of Russia compared to Israel — watch The Lobby and the potentially more explosive (and suppressed) The Lobby USA.

8 — Read Deep Adaptation by Prof Jem Bendell and related writings on his blog https://jembendell.wordpress.com/ then join Extinction Rebellion (rebellion.earth) to take action!

9 — Yemen (and oh yes, we train Saudi pilots in the UK to make sure they minimise the number of wedding parties and school buses they hit (God bless us)) — Source: Mark Curtis (typical MC research)

10 — Or France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece or anywhere in Scandinavia (if they will have me) :-)